The Lord commands and we obey. That pressure I mentioned a few days ago isn’t gone, but it has convinced me to make some decisions. One of them is that this blog is going to take a nap. For the time being, my writing and photos will appear on the forum. See you there.
Do you understand that God has a sense of humor? The Bible is loaded with puns and sarcasm that most people miss. Job, in the midst of his sorrows, answered one of his harassing friends with something like this: “Oh, yes, you are the models for humanity and all wisdom will die with you.”
God declares that He wants us to be His friends, His family. It is not out of place to imagine that He will play harmless pranks on those close to Him. When He wants to do something amusing, it naturally comes across from the Spirit Realm into our fallen realm. It will bear that signature; the nature of the prank will clearly be a matter of His divine authority at work.
Thus, we have people who have experienced what is called “concurrence” or “synchronicity” — events happening near each other in time, but bound together by a theme or meme, if you will, in your mind. Yes, God can and does arrange these things to make us laugh with Him.
Thus, you may replace your kitchen sink, watch a film in which a boat sinks, and find in your area a sink hole opened up all within a matter of hours. I’ve experienced these kinds of events from time to time. It’s my kind of humor, and I have felt in my heart that God was inviting me to be amused at the collision of small things in a short space of time, each reflecting a theme that I would recognize.
Don’t be surprised when God pulls such a prank on you.
Yesterday I was distracted by a very heavy sense of pressure. It has happened often enough that I recognized it as a moral burden, a potent sense of anticipation that great evil was coming to America. Furthermore, I was not alone. A couple of friends contacted me about the same thing bearing down on their conscious awareness.
I’ve written about this often enough; it’s part of mysticism. We are setting about intentionally trying to become aware of the Unseen Realm. We want to be a part of it. We are consciously preparing to take our place in Eternity and this world simply isn’t where things happen assertively, but is a mere reaction to things that originate somewhere else.
During those periods of pressure, I spend a lot more time in prayer and contemplation, striving to connect better to that other realm. Anyone close to me can tell I’m distracted, even if they don’t sense anything themselves. It’s rather like a calling, a bell ringing for my attention. It’s never processed intellectually, but it often results in moving me to do things differently. It’s not about data, but about persons and strong connections on a different level.
Some of my habits have already been changing, and in many ways such pressure confirms and gives focus to the resolve that moves me.
Let me give you some specifics of what has been moving already. I rarely use a graphical browser to read and research things on the Net. I use something called “elinks” quite a bit in a terminal window on Linux. It reduces the content clutter. Granted, there are whole sites where it doesn’t work at all, but most of the time it’s just fine. I get the data I’m seeking and don’t have to worry about the manipulative distractions common on most websites.
It’s not just the advertising; it’s the whole package of how color, shape and imagery are used to condition our thinking and receptivity to the content. For example, I’ve done some research on human awareness and how the media on the Net affects us as humans. I’m not going to link to the videos because, oddly enough, the videos themselves participate in the same manipulation they pretend to be warning about.
Do you realize just how much of what crosses the wires on the Net is not direct human communications? The majority of all traffic is generated by automatic processes — bots and algorithms talking to each other. We have created a whole generation of people whose creative efforts are entirely controlled by algorithms and what the service algorithms will promote. People seldom act on the interests of other people, being steered instead by how the algorithms promote or hide their output. The creative output serves profitability, not self-expression.
And content creators also must avoid censorship, that vast ugly effort to shape human perception.
Part of what I was facing in that pressure in my soul was about this very thing. I’m being called to change how I engage the Net because of how God is working among His people. Something awful is coming that will shut down opportunities I’ve enjoyed in the past. It’s not that my message will change, but that the means and methods will change.
Nor should you imagine that everything happened all at once yesterday. Rather, yesterday signaled to me a moment of turning, that the balance of things had finally shifted and decisions had to be made.
Don’t get hung up on the specifics; that’s not the point. The point is how God works in us. We are being steered by the Spirit, if we will listen. I’m doing my best to stay open. When we seek the Lord with passion, then that passion will burn more brightly at times. So, much of what happened yesterday was a shift in my heart on a moral plane, not a matter of mere facts and actions. The implications will play out in the future as my conscious awareness discovers what has changed in my convictions, bouncing my resolve off of circumstances.
We shall see what it means.
People send me a lot of junk by email. The motivations vary; I don’t mean to slam anyone for thinking something is worth my attention. Sometimes it actually is worth it. Even hucksters sometimes give away something useful in order to make their pitch.
Consider this video. At about 45 minutes, it’s a time sink. It will include toward the end promoting something I cannot support, solutions that I don’t believe will do much good.
For example, I believe that cryptocurrencies are useful only in the short term. They are more like weapons against centralized government. Once you leverage them for some immediate goal, trade them away. Their value will die suddenly when you least expect it. Think of them as expendable.
But the meat of the video is an insider’s revelation of things hidden by our wicked government officials. In summary, the story of the Salk Polio Vaccine is paired with some truly unconscionable “medical” testing of bio-weapons. This physician tells how we came to the place where Fauci was hiding “gain of function” testing in Wuhan, China. He warns that anything involving work with SV40 (a monkey virus) is guaranteed to promote cancer. And it’s quite intentional.
Thus, most new vaccines today are part of a long term campaign to generate millions of new cancer patients, which is where the real money is in industrial medicine. It’s not so much that they intend to kill you outright, but to turn you into a cancer patient so they can milk the system for profits.
You can work out the details of the history he offers in the first 30 minutes or so. I had to watch it twice because of the wealth of details. Then the talk turns to his political advocacy for things like cryptocurrencies and decentralized medical rights. Now, I’m certainly in favor of decentralized medicine, and I agree wholeheartedly with the message to resist any government mandated vaccines, but I don’t hold out much hope for changing the way western governments are doing things.
Rather, I suggest you will face a social and political siege in any future replays of the pandemic game. The next time, we will be forced to consider violence as the means to keeping medical toxins out of our bodies. If there is going to be an armed revolt in America, this will be the cause. Medical or climate based oppression is the best weapon the commies have.
We were born trapped in our fleshly natures. There was no way we could have broken the bondage; the flesh must die. Jesus did that for us. His death on the Cross broke the bondage and set us free to walk in the Spirit. This is what the writer of Hebrews tells his fellow Jews in Rome.
The Covenant of Moses was just a shadow of the real thing. Mount Sinai was a promise of what was to come. Blood sacrifices spoke of the price, but were not that price. They could not break the bondage of the fleshly nature. Otherwise, once free, there would have been no need to keep making the sacrifices over and over again. Though commanded by God, these rituals and sacrifices were just the shadow of redemption.
God revealed that Himself. David in Psalm 40 prophesied the truth: It wasn’t a matter of those sacrifices, but of a firm commitment based on the promises of things to come. The Law of Moses was a promise of redemption. Moses himself said that what God really wanted has always been the same: our hearts. Thus, the Messiah’s submission to come and simply live the Father’s will was the promise of a New Covenant.
So, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice once and for all, breaking the bondage of the flesh. Now He sits at the right hand of the Father, until such time as this New Covenant is fulfilled in His children. The New Covenant is not written in human language, but in the hearts of those children.
Following Christ to the Cross is the ultimate fulfillment of every command God had ever revealed to mankind. What the author indicates, but does not say, is his audience should stop whining about persecution in the flesh. It cannot change what Christ has done in your soul. He has broken the bondage of the flesh. Take up your cross of commitment and sacrifice, endure with patience, do His will in the face of sorrow and death. Encourage each other to endure and keep pulling together as a family. That’s what it means to follow Christ.
Now that the bondage is broken, you are free to walk away from sin and defilement. You would have to willfully seek out disobedience; there’s no further cleansing that can help you. Are you trying to provoke God’s wrath?
Back when these Hebrew Christians first came to Christ some decades ago, they were willing to endure some persecution in defiance of Jewish authorities. They understood being released from the bondage to this life and its trappings. Are they now going to fold under Roman persecution?
He quotes from Habakkuk 2 about how God operates on a different time frame, yet He never fails to act. When God comes to deliver, He will be searching for those who were faithful in waiting until He was ready to act. We get the feeling the writer sensed that the opportunity to slide back into the safety of the Talmud would end soon when Rome would destroy the Temple.
Don’t turn tail and hide in Judaism; Rome will destroy that, too. What’s left will never be the same.
As is typically the case, Brandon Smith has a good grasp on the problem: Globalists Are Taking The Mask Off And That’s A Bad Sign…. Normally, I take issue with his solutions, but this time, he doesn’t offer one.
His main point is that the attempt to assert control via the false pandemic failed due to miscalculation on the oppressors’ part. They didn’t know just how loud alternative voices could be online. Thus, he warns they won’t make that mistake again. Whatever they try next will take into account the necessity of silencing us.
I’ll let you read it for yourself. I’m keeping an eye on the technology of the Net and ways people are approaching the issue of censorship. There’s really nothing new at the moment. Smith hints at things when he mentions remaining independent. That translates into learning how to avoid as much as possible giving someone else control over your online activities.
We’ve covered that here often enough: prefer Open Source software, consider using a VPN, avoid being pushed into situations that surrender control to outside agencies for anything that matters, avoid tracking online and off. I would add one thing: Don’t be afraid of sounding less than professional so that you depend on grammar software. That’s one area where Open Source is currently lacking. Spelling checkers are everywhere, but grammar checking is a lot harder. Don’t worry about typos and punctuation mistakes. There’s a very strong likelihood people who can read will get what you mean.
It’s a case of relaxing on things that don’t matter, and tightening up on things that do. The latter will cramp your convenience, for sure, but if your operational security is sloppy, you’ll be caught off guard by how the enemy will seize the advantage.
The time for physical violence is long past; if you are worried about the commies taking control, it’s too late. They have control. Right-wing death squads won’t do any good now. But the violence will come around again, and it will be quite different than what could have been done before. Right now, the emphasis is on information warfare.
If you can begin to absorb the Hebrew outlook on time versus the western emphasis on efficiency, then you will understand the seeming lack of hurry for most things in Scripture. And the few times you read “make haste” become all the more significant for their rarity.
The Hebrews didn’t suffer from the make-things-happen mindset. Their emphasis was staying faithful under testing. They were convinced far too much of their existence was in the hands of God, not in their own hands. It shows up best in how people with a spiritual-moral orientation are patient, particularly in their patience with people.
It’s one thing to say, “Time heals all wounds.” It’s another thing to get the focus off the goal of healing and onto the time and process as God’s management prerogative. As noted in Pageau’s explanation of time versus space, we learn that time cleanses and restores, instead of tapping our feet impatiently, in a hurry to get on with the things we believe we can change.
If you come under conviction that something in your life justifies praying about it, then giving God time is also justified. The anxiety of children about time and the fear of boredom are not fitting for servants of the Lord. People are the greatest treasure in this life, and giving God time to work in their hearts is not so different from waiting for fruit to ripen in season.
As you might expect, at any given time I am praying several people through the process of changing their outlook from the childlike western “let’s get this done” orientation into a more Hebraic spiritual orientation. They require time, but the goal is not in getting done, but in seeing them actually ripen and become treasured members of the family. As long as my spirit says they are worth it, I’ll put up with their chatter and challenges. We need them in the covenant family, and bearing spiritual children is no different from incubating literal children in that certain developmental tasks must finish.
Keep in mind that in Hebrew, there are only two verb tenses: actions completed, and those still in process. And if we are honest, is it any different as the Lord works with each of us? Have any of us advanced so far that we can leave the Father’s care?
A major element in what we consider child misbehavior is visual stimulation. This is well known, but seldom stated. The way the human brain works, visual stimulation is very much like any other stimulant — it becomes addictive.
If you want to see better behavior in children, reduce the cultural emphasis on visual stimulation. The faster, the more complex and bolder the colors, the more it affects them. This includes TV, all computer video, etc. And don’t imagine that you can escape as an adult. You can develop an addiction later in life. However, with children it’s rather like gaining an addiction in the womb; different aspects of the brain’s development continue throughout life, but the worst damage is done by about age 12.
Let me propose an experiment: Try reducing your own exposure to visual stimulation for a little while. The longer you do, the more your spiritual life will grow. Did you think we were kidding about the difference between western and Hebrew thinking? The Hebrew orientation is the one God designed for His people, and it’s not a visual orientation. It’s auditory; it’s not about intellectual ideals, but about moral authority. A part of this would be reducing the visual stimulation effect of things like smart phones.
I realize that we cannot simply force our world to comply with our demands. What I’m suggesting here is your own internal orientation. If you consciously resist the temptation to visual stimulation, you gain in spiritual strength. In the biblical approach to human morality, text and speech are everything. The flesh prefers visual stimulation; the spirit calls for less of that.
Summary and Psychological Foundation of the Differences
Boman devotes these last few pages to restating his thesis that it is best to synthesize the Greek/western viewpoint and the Hebrew into something better than either — at least, that’s what he almost says. The summary is full of standard academic blather that tries to sound encouraging, and he really doesn’t add anything useful.
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It’s not as if we learned nothing useful from the book, but it was still rather disappointing. I’m not sure Boman understands the Hebrew culture and language as well as others I’ve read from. It’s actually pretty hard to judge because he isn’t as much a fan as he seems of the Hebrew epistemology. In the end, he remains a very western man who likes to imagine he’s open minded, as if that were something of great value.
Finally, I’m not sure I’d recommend you invest the money for it. I’ll keep my copy, but I’m not likely to open it again any time soon.
